In a joint statement, JD senior vice-president Harish Khanna and vice-president Sathi Sohan Lal said the decision to join hands with Mann was contrary to the objectives and policies of the party. They added that while the Janata Dal had all along forged alliances with parties working on secular lines and had chosen to lose power rather than allying with fundamental forces, it was an admitted fact that Mann had been persuing a separatist line.

Khanna said that by openly saying that Kashmir was not an integral part of India, Mann had exposed his real face of an anti-national. He wondered how the state unit president had made the announcement of an alliance without holding any discussion within the party.

The Janata Dal functionaries, while dissociating themselves from the decision, claimed that the party rank and file was by and large angry and upset over the issue. The state unit leaders, they added, were in constant touch with the party high command and had been assured that an emergency meeting of the state office-bearers and steering committee would be convened soon to finalise the broad strategy for the election.